I will not be getting into the Do’s and Don’ts of acquiring customer through E-Mail and gaining momentum with CLV through various touch points and blah blah blah..

It is so stodgy that it hits my central nervous system badly, reminding me of a forced training and a manual guide of making things work in a way it is written!

Let’s dive into our circadian life, with some very interesting affairs! Everyday (More likely) we go to our nearest departmental store for our daily needs. It could be rice, soap or salt, regardless of the fact that how much square feet of a surface that store has occupied till the time it fulfills my need- Does this statement tie some business knots? Yes! It does. This affirms that we as an end user can go to any of the vendor/advertiser if he supplies/fulfills my requirement. Questionably I may not buy but I will go.

What Next?

Two examples to be cited:

A.) I visit my nearest store for the very first time and enquire about the product that I need, may be a soap. While glaring at the stacks for my soap, the shop owner scans my eyes concurrently and finds me unacquainted and puzzled. Post that he asks some questions to explore my need. He then suggests the soap, which I like, or which fits my LSM score (Point to be noted, he just made a guess, might be a wild one). Conversation does not end here. He continues with some more questions like where do I live? He has not seen me before. What do I do? Who all are in my family and all! At times the gentleman who is also the custodian of the cash-counter may end the sales with a chocolate, as a freebie with a smile– Is there any core business fundamental you are able to see? You are right- He identified me as prospect, other than the transactions; he explored the future business by asking all relevant questions to me. Taking out time in knowing me, he tried to ensure my future visit. The freebie was an absolute relationship strengthening exercise.

B.) Have you ever scrutinized your own action during the evaluation of a nearby departmental store on how economic he is! The first thing you do is you tend to ask the rates for products like Sugar, Rice, Flour etc., because, you border on the rates for the mentioned stuffs and then you see the quality.

During my first visit to the nearby grocery store to purchase my monthly household goods, I throw him a list of edibles starting from Rice to Roasted peas and sauce to salt. You know what! He will quote or charge me a very competitive price which I may not get even from the big retail chains for my much needed consumables which are rice, sugar, pulse etc. For rest of the rations, you will be charged a rupee up or down! – Any business Logic? You guessed it right- just by reducing or being aggressive on my “must” consumable items; he suddenly gained my trust and faith. I have an inclination now. I started believing that he is genuine, competitive and affable. It means, he has calculated the revenue generated with the current purchase and approximated or predicted the future cash flows from me. In marketing, this is what you called “customer’s lifetime value”

Regardless to say, on the various touch-points he bundles the product for me, offers something of great value, gives me credit and stuff like that- again, a marketing tactic or a strategy which has been created for me, which is relevant to me and that has been delivered to me in a way I liked it to be.

Relatively, that is the fundamental of every business, it is happening in our everyday life, which goes un-noticed from the core of marketing perspective.

This is being effectuated by a local small grocery store, which would not be catering to more than 250 households (roughly) in metros. Don’t you think it is doable, attainable and can be executed by big entities like yours too?

Why through e-mail is simply because, out of the total Internet population which is 243million as of June’ 2014 (IAMAI & IMRB, 2014), 80% use Internet to access emails.

That’s not all! The benefits of acquiring customer through emails are many. To list down a few: –

Highly measurable which ultimately drives and boost your sales by up sells and cross sells.

So what have to be the action points?

Find out the right partner who does not require spoon-feeding, who are best in class, who embraces innovation, spends in developing employee’s skill-sets, and treats you as a partner.

Create/Source/Rent out the valuable and qualitative e-mail list of prospects. Deliver them the right content.

Feed curiosity. Remember you are now dealing with “Generation Z”

Get ready with your creative for every dimension.

Do multivariate or AB testing (Whatever suits). It’s imperative. Early monitoring is like tasting the food like a chef.

Be innovative & reasonable in bringing your customers on board.

Create various touch-points.

Do research and segmentation. Reduce the manpower dependency. Espouse technology. Remember- your consumer is everywhere and doing the best use of the technology.

Convey or communicate what your consumers want to listen to and accelerate their interest.

Be relevant and rewarding.

Drive engagement.

Try to recover the lost opportunities, which might be accountable for as big as 40%

Seek their advocacy or evangelize your communications and offerings.

Remember the theory, which has been cited in the aforementioned example, is a proven one. So, do not romance with it, execute it.

Call your mind for that grocery store owner, who, how effectively identified the prospect, probed, suggested, sold, been aggressive on pricing, secured the future business, created multiple touch-points, gave value adds and had thereby owned a customer for a life-time which essentially would be doing his advocacy.

The striking part for you is- Maximize & Multiply your revenue 🙂

What else? Isn’t it a good food for thought and a lesson to think through?